Gill net survey at Huntington North reservoir

Mike Bolinski and Nate Owens weigh and measure fish at Huntington North Reservoir.

By Pasty Stoddard

The annual spring fish counts are underway at waters throughout the county. Huntington North Reservoir was surveyed on May 9 and Joe's Valley Reservoir will be sampled on May 16.

Biologist Mike Bolinski with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources was involved with the Huntington gill net survey. Other technicians involved this day included Mike Ault, Meg Goodstein, Nate Owens and Casey Olsen.

Gill nets were set the previous evening and checked the following morning.

Bolinski said, "Everything is going well, we are really happy we found wipers this year."

Other species included Utah chubs, crawdads, large mouth bass, green sunfish, brown trout and rainbow trout. The wipers were planted in the reservoir approximately three years ago and this is the first time they have found them in the gill net surveys which is encouraging news that the species is surviving in the water. The wipers averaged 13 inches and weighed a little over 1 pound. All of the fish were weighed, measured and recorded. Wipers are a sterile hybrid cross between white bass and striped bass. Wipers are a hard fighting, good eating open water predator.